I don’t know about you but one of my purest joys in gaming is leaping over stuff. From Mirror’s Edge to Dying Light, mantling and running and jumping and landing is always brilliant and is something gaming absolutely nails. That’s why I’m looking forward to the newly-announced standalone entry in the latter series; Dying Light The Beast. If you’re looking forward to it too then there’s good news - you may be able to get the game for the grand price of nothing.

Exploration in Starfield has historically been a bit of a chore. Even with your jetpack and a low-G world, you’ll be forever bouncing off terrain as you try to get to that distant cave to complete your planet log. Now that’s all changed, with the release of the Rev-8 vehicle as a free update - and it’s out very soon indeed.

Arrakis, dune, desert planet. It’s a lovely place, filled with Fremen, sandworms, spice, and war. It’s the home to some of the best sci-fi films and novels ever created, and soon you’ll have the chance to touch down on it in Dune Awakening. During Gamescom 2024 developer Funcom showed off a little of how it’ll play - and narrowed down when you’ll get to play it.

Out of all the horror properties Dead by Daylight fans have been asking for, there’s always been one that’s stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the loudness of the requests. It’s not Friday the 13th’s Jason, it’s not the classic version of Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street - in fact it’s a different Freddy altogether. That’s right, fans have been wanting Five Nights at Freddy’s in DBD for years - and now it’s finally going to happen.

One of the most wonderful things about the recent surge of boomer shooters is seeing how different developers interpret what a retro FPS should be. Some like Amid Evil look to Heretic for inspiration, others like Dusk bounce off the Quake springboard. Then you get a game like Impaler, which combines a whole ton of influences. You’ve got bits of Doom, a hint of Rise of the Triad, the arena combat of Quake 3, and even a bit of Unreal Tournament’s verticality. Now a brand new update has hit the game, retitling it to Impaler Gold, and there’s loads to unpack.

When you release a game into early access there’s often a rush, especially at the start, where updates come thick and fast. It’s understandable as this is the first time the public will have had the chance to play a title, with many previously unknown issues cropping up in rapid succession. That’s been the case for medieval dynasty sim Norland, whose developer has just wrapped up 15 almost-daily patches since the game launched.

Every so often an idea sparks in my head. It says - buy a lot of swords. I don’t listen to this voice very much, mainly because I know I’d be absolutely useless if swordplay ever did become part of my life and I would rapidly lose my limbs, and potentially my life. Thankfully, games like Half Sword exist where I can try out my love of sword swinging in a safe space, and a big new update has just made its medieval arsenal even more realistic.

A truism in life is that you can’t make everyone happy. Not everyone is going to love what you create and that’ll be the same no matter what you do. Recently, huge survival sim Soulmask has been trying to become a little less tough on players, especially those who are new to the game. A few different patches have made the game less challenging in some areas, and a few fans are worried that this indicates a change in direction for the game. In a recent Q&A held on the Soulmask Discord, developer CampFire Studios is attempting to lay these fears to rest.

Ubisoft Forward events regularly pop up, usually once a year, giving everyone a chance to see what the colossal publisher and developer is working on. The most recent one unleashed a barrage of information about the first XDefiant season, including a few tidbits about what you can expect when it launches. We also got to find out exactly when that season will land.

There have been rumors for a long time about precisely where the Anno series will go next. A fan-favorite destination ripe for speculation has always been the Roman Empire, and finally it’s happening. Anno 117: Pax Romana is sending strategy players back to the second century, and even though there’s not much announced yet there’s still plenty to be excited about.

The CoD HQ launcher has to be one of the least popular additions the series has received in recent years. The act of launching, and relaunching, just to get to the game you want to play instead of the game the app has decided you should play is torturous. Thankfully, there may be change on the horizon, as the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 developer is looking to get it behaving a little better.

Few games make themselves as hard to love as Starfield. I say that as someone who’s sunk tons of hours into it - and continues to do so. Maybe it's masochism, maybe it’s just a love for the kind of RPG Bethesda makes, but there’s something about Starfield which draws me back time and time again. There’s plenty of others like me out there too, but a recent addition has proved extremely controversial with the already badly bruised community.

Dungeon crawlers and PC gaming go hand in hand like strategy games and PC gaming. From the very earliest days of IBM Compatibles and the like, many games revolved around heading under ground to slay enemies, cast spells, and delve mysterious depths. That's still the case today and a brand new Humble Bundle has emerged from the gloom to let you try some of the best modern dungeon crawlers like Lunacid or Going Under, for less.

There are some names in the FPS genre that have shaken the foundations of the gaming world. Half-Life, Halo, Doom, Quake, and a few more have become legends that still reverberate today. Halo in particular became a colossal cultural phenomenon but long before Master Chief set foot on a space circle, its developer Bungie made a fascinating shooter called Marathon, and it has just launched on Steam for free.

Don't you hate it when someone comes along and steals your house? In Another Crab's Treasure that's exactly what happens to your hero crustacean, sending you off on an adventure to get your shell back and find out what's going on this incredibly polluted part of the ocean. Combining tight soulslike combat with a cuddly cartoon feel, Another Crab's Treasure has shot past all expectations, even the developer's.

Few co-op games have been such a surprise as Sker Ritual, which in under a month has seen it receive a whopping 84% rating on Steam with 2,659 reviews coming in. A zombie shooter from a team best known for developing in fields like single-player horror and interactive movies may not seem like a natural fit for a game of this sort, but Wales Interactive has definitely made it work.

It feels like one day everything and everyone will be contained within Fortnite. It's already doing a great job of bringing most of popular culture under its wing, with outfits ranging from Family Guy's Peter Griffin to Robocop already making appearances. Now, Billie Eilish is dropping, as the star herself has confirmed that she'll be the new headline act for Fortnite Festival's third season.